1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a computer-readable storage medium for a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
User authentication is widely used in many circumstances due to the recent increase in awareness of security. In an office setting, section authentication (section management) is used in combination with user authentication for the purpose of budget control for each group or each section.
In the case, however, of the combined use of the user authentication and the section authentication in an image forming apparatus, a user needs to be successfully authenticated twice until he/she is permitted to log onto the image forming apparatus, which increases the time for him/her to operate the image forming apparatus.
There is a function, for example, of incorporating, into authentication information on a user (user authentication information), information on a division to which the user belongs (section information) to perform section authentication in combination with user authentication. In order to use the function, operation for registering the section information in the user authentication information is necessary. In general, an administrator carries out such operation. If a user performs such operation by himself/herself, he/she needs to perform such operation on a registration screen. Unfortunately, it is burdensome for the administrator or the user to perform the operation for registering the section information in the user authentication information.
To cope with this, a cooperative function is provided. According to this function, a user is associated (correlated) with a division in advance. Then, if the user is successfully authenticated by user authentication, then he/she is permitted to log onto an image forming apparatus through the division associated with him/her. In the case of using the cooperative function, it is unnecessary for the administrator to operate user authentication information for individual users, and it is possible for the user to log onto the image forming apparatus through the division merely by user authentication.
In connection with this, a control method of an image forming apparatus is proposed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-195704. According to the method, fingerprint data of a user is associated with a section number, and is registered in a RAM in advance. Upon the use of the image forming apparatus, a comparison is made between the fingerprint data registered in the RAM and fingerprint data of a user created by reading a fingerprint of the user. In the case where the fingerprint data of the user is verified, the image forming apparatus becomes available according to the section number registered in association with the fingerprint data.
As companies have recently grown and expanded, the number of users and sections (projects) to be managed therein increases accordingly. Further, a user does not always belong to one section, and occasionally belongs to a plurality of sections at the same time.
In the case where a user belongs to a plurality of sections, in order for the user to use an image forming apparatus, it is always necessary to select a section after he/she has undergone a user authentication process. Thus, as the number of sections to which the user belongs increases, for example, indications on the display for showing the sections should be changed from one to another, which complicates operation to select a desired section.
Further, the purposes of using output materials sometimes differ depending on functions, such as a copy function and a facsimile function, equipped in an image forming apparatus. Accordingly, a section to be selected possibly differs according to the functions. In such a case, user authentication is required on a function-by-function basis, which further complicates the operation.
As discussed above, unfortunately, conventional authentication methods involve complicated steps to make an image forming apparatus available.